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Transfer to and from of weak person to and from wheelchair

Author

Soh, Zhen Yu

Date of Issue

2017-05-15

School

School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Abstract

This report describes the mechanical design of an Assist Device which would help for wheelchair patients to shift themselves to and from the wheelchair. More specifically, it will reduce the amount of risk and effort for both the wheelchair patients and their helpers when they are shifting the patients to and from their wheelchairs. There are approximately 100,000 wheelchair patients in Singapore, comprising of both the elderlies and the people with disabilities. Although there are multiple wheelchair friendly facilities built around Singapore, wheelchair patients still face problems when it comes to shifting in and out of their wheelchairs. The predominant method of shifting wheelchair patients in and out of their wheelchair now is by carrying them with the help of another person. This can be inefficient and dangerous as untrained helpers might carry the wheelchair patients awkwardly which might cause injuries to both the patients and the helpers. This brings us to the main objective of the project, to design an assist device that will be portable and make the shifting of wheelchair patients in and out of their wheelchair safer and more effectively. Comparison between existing assist devices will help to determine which method is the most suitable. Force and Finite Element Method analysis will help determine whether the design will work out or not. Furthermore, a prototype of the design will be built to help analyze what is working well and what are some of the improvements that can be made to the assist device to make it even more efficient.